


A Curious Human

by ScaleDragon4



Category: Original Work
Genre: Alternate Universe - Medieval, Animalistic, Dragons, F/M, Fantasy, Heterochromia, Possessive Behavior, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Treasure Hunting, Witches
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-08
Updated: 2021-02-08
Packaged: 2021-03-14 08:00:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,013
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29292522
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ScaleDragon4/pseuds/ScaleDragon4
Summary: Gull stumbles into a dragon's den and gets accidentally adopted(?) by the local fire drake. How inconvenient!
Kudos: 2





	A Curious Human

**Author's Note:**

> I just write what I wanna read. More dragons and more fluff. No beta we die like dragons.

Vaskea snarled silently as she shifted atop her glittering hoard. One of the flying human-fangs had lodged itself inside her inner forearm, caught on the weak, flexible skin. Part of the fang had broken when she reached to wrench it out, leaving a stump infuriatingly too short to catch between her fangs. She grumbled as it continued to poke and prod, like a barely painful itch she couldn’t scratch.

The humans had ventured closer than usual today, shouting their raucous cries and puffing out their chests like the songbirds in springtime. She supposed that they were getting bolder at attempting to take some of her hoard. However, bolder does not mean better. They had lit little sticks of flame to see inside her den, completely blind without the light of the Great Fire. One of them, with a large feather on its head (perhaps some sort of display crest) was clearly the leader of their little pack. It shouted and strutted the most out of the small human group, waving what looked like a long, silver fang in her general direction.

Vaskea sent them running back to their wretched little nest with a few puffs of dragon fire.

Her lip curled upwards at the recent memory. The humans were more reckless than newly fledged hatchlings. Even the tiniest hatchling knew that dragons were never to be trifled with once atop a hoard. As Vaskea burrowed deeper into the mountain of gold, gems and semi-precious stones, she could feel the thrum of the hoard’s magic. It pulsated all around her in waves of contentment, soothing the ravenous feeling that often plagued her when she was gone too long from her treasures. 

A scent pulled Vaskea from her musings. It smelled of dirt and must, the sourness of sweat curling at its edges. An acrid scent of fear laced everything together. 

Human.

Vaskea grumbled lowly at the presence of yet another intruder to her den. The humans never learned their lesson, but it usually took them a little longer than this to brave her den again. She tossed her head as she rose, shaking out the drowsiness the hoard-magic induced. Vaskea prowled through the stony corridors leading into the main chamber, open to the outside world via a massive cave entrance. 

A tiny silhouette trembled at the month of the cave, and although a hood covered the human’s features, Vaskea knew for a fact that it wasn’t one of the ordinary squawking ones coming for her treasure. This one seemed...unusual. For one, the human had none of the hard, shiny scales that seemed common among their kind. It was wrapped in something that smelled faintly of wetness and animal hide. The human also lacked any of the long fangs that the others liked to wave around so much. Instead, its paws were wrapped around itself in a strange embrace.

Vaskea, safely cocooned in the darkness at the back of the cavern, inhaled deeply to properly scent the strange human--who she decidedly deemed was of no threat to her hoard. A milky scent wafted beneath the overtones of fear and unease, denoting that the human was not yet a fully grown adult. 

The sounds of distant shouts echoed throughout the cave, and the human lurched forwards with a small gasp. The fear surrounding the human spiked, and Vaskea was startled as the creature came barreling towards her in desperation. Luckily, the human, like the rest of its species, was cowed by the darkness that Vaskea was swathed in and veered to dive behind a jagged set of stalagmites instead. This human was definitely a strange one. What sane creature sought to hide with its back facing darkness? 

Vaskea’s gaze on the human was broken when the sound of hoofbeats began to swell. A horse and its rider neared the dragon’s nest. Vaskea normally would have snarled and given the human a face-full of dragon fire, but she was too intrigued by the strange one’s reaction to her own kind. Wasn’t she happy to see some of her own species?

Vaskea heard the rustling and clanking of the noisy human as it leapt off its mount, hitting the snow with a telltale crunch. Again, a silhouette appeared at the mouth of the cave, but this one made no attempt to venture further in. Instead, it let out a long, keening howl and then began chattering to itself. Although Vaskea knew not the language of the humans, she sensed the intent behind its howling. 

Challenge. Anger. Irritation. 

The human howled again. This time, a series of rough and ugly noises was pitched at the end of it, and the strange little human quivering behind the rocks drew inwards on itself, seemingly trying to become as small as possible. However, in its shifting, the little human knocked aside some loose rock, sending them gently scraping across the stone floor. 

The other human advanced into the cave, chattering as he went. 

The little human was engulfed by fear-scent now, shaking beneath the hide-thing that it wore over its head and body. Vaskea’s patience had already been tried for the day, and she resolved to ponder the strange human later, within the safety of her hoard. She let out a long, low growl that thrummed throughout the cavern.

The shiny human froze. Its own fear-scent began to creep around the cave.

Before Vaskea could properly roast the bothersome human alive, it turned tail and fled, clanking as it went. Satisfied with the result, Vaskea was about to promptly return to her treasure when a choked whine sounded from the group of stalagmites. The little human had remained rooted in place instead of fleeing in terror? That was new. Usually humans, unless roused by the frenzy of their packs, fled as soon as they realized her presence. 

The little human was still shaking from where it had retreated, and acrid terror now filled Vaskea’s nostrils, raising her hackles ever so slightly. Vaskea didn’t particularly feel like roasting this human alive, considering its terror and blatant helplessness. So, she settled with simply scaring it out of her den with a hint of dragon flame. 

Vaskea felt for the embers surrounding her heart and gently coaxed them upwards. She felt a spark catch along her throat and guided it to travel upwards towards her maw. It was nothing compared to the raging torrents that she usually summoned, but it would do for the purpose of frightening the little human. Vaskea opened her jaws ever so slightly, and a tiny spark popped out, landing a couple of claw-lengths away from the human. It bloomed into a small mass of dragon flame, hues of brilliant white swirling inside a mass of red.

The little human seemed petrified by the flame until, inch by inch, it crept closer.

That was definitely not a normal human reaction to her dragon flame.

Just as Vaskea was contemplating on making a bigger flame to drive the human out, a flash of movement caught her eye. The human had seated itself perhaps one claw-length away from the flames, and it was tentatively reaching out towards the blaze with both its paws, seemingly in awe of the heat the spark gave off. The human flexed its tiny paws and let out a pleased sound. It was then that Vaskea realized that the initial trembling when the tiny human was at the cave entrance wasn’t from fear or terror, as she had presumed. The human had been cold.

Vaskea watched as the human was memorized by the swirling flames. They danced as if harried along by an ancient song, a song of dragons and magic that was lost to the human ear. However, as much as the human intrigued her, Vaskea began to feel a gentle pull within her. The hoard was beckoning its master to return. It beckoned for her to return and slumber till nightfall, when the humans were asleep and the hunting began. 

Just as Vaskea was about to let out another growl to finally oust the human from her den, the tiny creature yanked the hood from its head, revealing a sight that the dragon had never seen before.

Two round eyes reflected the dragonflame in front of it, but unlike the humans that Vaskea had seen, this human had eyes that did not match. Instead, one eye was a deep blue sapphire while the other was cast in molten oranges and golds, like Vaskea’s own eyes. The little human’s eyes gleamed in the light, winking like some of the gems in Vaskea’s own hoard. Her own treasure. The pull resurfaced, tugging at Vaskea’s inner flames, but this time, the pull wasn’t to return to the hoard. It was a pull of claiming, of a treasure that absolutely must be hers. Mine. The pull was urging her, whispering to her to keep the little gems that had wandered into her den. They would be hers and hers alone. No other would have them, especially not those shiny and squawking humans. The voices whispering at the edges of her mind grew louder. Vaskea obeyed. 

The human squeaked in terror as Vaskea lunged from the shadows quicker than a striking cobra. She caught the human in her front talons, careful not to scratch its trembling form with her razor sharp claws, and tucked it against her breast like the tiniest of hatchlings. The human, Vaskea noted with displeasure, was still freezing cold despite her time in front of the dragon flame. The cold sensation prickled against her scales, and she resolved to remedy it once reunited with the rest of her treasure. Vaskea extinguished the dragon fire as she turned towards the tunnel leading to her hoard. The human had ceased its pitiful wriggling and hung limply. Perhaps it was conserving energy? No matter, it would soon be surrounded by the glimmering hoard, enveloped in the drowsy heat of a dragon’s nest.

Vaskea clambered atop the mountain of shinies and began displacing some of the jewels, sweeping glittering garnets and emeralds aside with her tail to make room for her newest addition. After all, just because the tiny human looked like a treasure did not mean it was as durable as metals and gemstones. With a satisfied huff, Vaskea set the human down and waited to see what it would do. The hoard magic arced playfully in the air as it encountered something new and not-treasure. 

The human seemed like it was confused. Its gemstone eyes darted back and forth in a dizzying cycle. First, they gazed up at Vaskea, round with shock. Then, they swept around to the various piles of stones and gold, widening a fraction. Vaskea, taking this as the human being awed by her hoard, puffed up a tiny bit; she was never one to turn down praise (no matter who it came from).

The scent of fear returned, and the human began to back away from the dragon in slow steps.

Now, that was just rude. The human had the honor of becoming part of her hoard, and now it was trying to run away? Unacceptable. Vaskea grumbled in annoyance and simply scooped the human in her talons. It squeaked and wriggled once again, but quickly stilled as it was brought to lean against Vaskea’s upper chest. 

The human practically melted as it was cradled against her. 

Vaskea’s lip curled into a pleased grin as she felt the coldness ebb out of the little human. It had since stopped struggling and laid curled against the scales of Vaskea’s underside. Clearly, the hoard’s magic was working. The human was soon slumped against Vaskea’s scales, a little snore emanating from it as it breathed, finally at peace. 

Vaskea placed the human nearby, atop a bed of coins that was relatively flat, and resolved to settle within the luxurient stones of her nest. The various gold bits and pieces of shiny rock rubbed against her scales as she burrowed a little into the mound, a pleased hum settling around her as the hoard welcomed back its keeper.


End file.
